1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computers, and, in particular, to the transmission of multimedia presentations over computer networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
For certain network-based applications, such as multicasting, data are grouped on network addresses (e.g., multicast addresses) in a content-based manner. That is, data that are part of the same presentation are grouped together on the same network address. For example, in one multimedia multicasting application, a presentation comprising audio and video portions is transmitted over a network from a server to one or more receivers over a computer network, where the server and receivers are nodes of that network. In conventional multicasting, the audio and video portions (i.e., the components of the multimedia presentation) are assigned the same network address for transmission over the network. The network infrastructure routes all of the presentation data to all of the nodes that have joined the multicast group, independent of whether a particular node wants to or even can process all of that data (i.e., all of the components of the presentation). This can lead to inefficient use of the bandwidth available throughout the network.
What is needed is an improved scheme for routing components of network-based presentations. It is accordingly an object of this invention to overcome the disadvantages and drawbacks of the known art and to provide such an improved scheme for routing components of network-based presentations.
Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the detailed description of a preferred embodiment which follows.